Pompidou Center to Open Gallery in Shanghai, Designed by David Chipperfield Architects

David Chipperfield Architects has revealed the design of the newest home of the Centre Pompidou, the West Bund Art Museum in Shanghai. The Parisian institution revealed the details with the announcement of a 5-year deal with the West Bund Group to stage exhibitions in the museum beginning in 2019. Approximately 20 exhibitions – including a focus on contemporary Chinese art – will be included in the deal, described by the Centre Pompidou as “the most important long-term cultural exchange project” between France and China.

Courtesy of DCA

Description provided by the architects.

The new West Bund Art Museum is a prominent building of the masterplan for the West Bund of Shanghai. The aim of the design is to create a special place at the riverside where visitors can visit a museum and also enjoy the riverside and the views to downtown Shanghai. Due to its situation as a solitaire at the north most point where the road and the river diverge to form a generous green park, the museum will be the prime cultural entity that visitors encounter when coming to the Xuhui Riverside District via the Shanghai Corniche. The building will have a strong relationship to its surroundings.

Courtesy of DCA

Courtesy of DCA

Courtesy of DCA

Three exhibition gallery volumes approximately 18m tall define the building massing on the North, West and South sides of the site. The exhibition galleries are stacked and the heights are configured to provide clerestory lighting to the lower level galleries, while the upper level galleries are mainly top lit. In addition, each upper level gallery contains an expansive view window providing views to downtown Shanghai, the local Huangpu river bank, and the park to the south.

Courtesy of DCA

Courtesy of DCA

The museum is positioned on the outer edges of the site on these three sides to create a unique space at the riverside. This central area of the building contains 3 main space defining elements; a three storey lobby with a central triple-height atrium, a single storey long café pavilion located along the river’s edge with a rooftop viewing terrace connecting the upper lobby with the riverside, and a landscaped sunken courtyard connecting the underground museum level with the riverside terrace and promenade.